Doha
— — a white city the desert holds against the sea.
Not only on a wall.
“Doha rises from a low bay on the eastern coast of the Qatar peninsula, a skyline of glass towers across the water from a long stone Corniche. South of the bay sits the Museum of Islamic Art, the last building I. M. Pei designed, set on its own small island. North, the towers of West Bay come on at dusk one floor at a time. Between them, the lanes of Souq Waqif still smell of cardamom and oud.
Doha, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Doha is the capital and largest city of Qatar, home to roughly 80% of the country's population on a small peninsula in the Persian Gulf. The modern city grew from a 19th-century pearling and fishing settlement around Al Bidda. Hamad International Airport, opened in 2014, sits south of the centre and connects Doha to most of the world in a single flight. The seven-kilometre Corniche walks the curve of the bay, from the Museum of Islamic Art at the south end to the West Bay business district at the north.
The Museum of Islamic Art, completed in 2008, was I. M. Pei's last major commission. Pei, then in his nineties, asked to be taken to Cairo to study the 9th-century Mosque of Ibn Tulun before drawing the building. The result sits on a man-made island, white limestone stacked into clean geometric volumes, with a five-storey atrium and a long view back across the water to the towers of West Bay. The collection inside spans fourteen centuries of work from three continents.
Doha sits in a hot desert climate. Summer highs from June through September regularly clear 40 °C, and humidity off the Gulf can be heavy; the cooler months from November through March are the working season for walking the Corniche and the souqs. Souq Waqif, restored in 2006 on the site of a much older market, opens its lanes in the late afternoon, with the gold and spice rows running into the evening. The Museum of Islamic Art is closed on Tuesdays and open late on Thursdays.